41–50 of 269 posts
I think that's a very low take of what means being a developer. I am not getting payed for that, I'm getting payed for solving problems. Some easy, some hard, some very hard.
The truth I had to unlearn is that coding is a solitary activity, and that coding is the most important part of a senior software engineer’s job. Now I rarely have the chance to code for a few hours straight because if I have enough information to write code then all that’s left is the easy part. The hard part is coordinating, defining the problem, planning for the future, and communicating the current status of the…
That's not a senior engineer's job.. that's a job that has scope creeped into many roles: project management, lead developer, project owner and a trainer. Are you doing QA and managing the production servers as well?
People who realize that, usually quickly become essential to organization. Rest is typically easy to replace.
That's a very bad habit. Code should be self documenting. If you need to write comments to explain what the code does, you've done a poor job at writing it.
There are only tools and techniques, which can be applied depending on the context. Some of them fit 99% of times. Some almost never. None is written in stone and any of them won't make project good or bad on its own, let alone commercially successful.
You become senior, when thrown into a new environment, you can can say which of these will help to move forward, and you know that not because "everyone does that", but you truly understand what they will do to the project and the team.
The truth I had to unlearn is that coding is a solitary activity, and that coding is the most important part of a senior software engineer’s job. Now I rarely have the chance to code for a few hours straight because if I have enough information to write code then all that’s left is the easy part. The hard part is coordinating, defining the problem, planning for the future, and communicating the current status of the…
I hate that this has become the norm. Sometimes, even most of the time, tight clean code and proper data structures and clean smart queries are vital for both cost and performance reasons. That smart(experienced) people think up how to approach a problem and throw it over the wall to the juniors makes me sad, even if it has become somewhat commonplace. I was actually offered a position doing exactly that for a rather…
I see software as a form of literacy, and it both amuses and saddens me to hear things like "I used to write code, but since I moved to management I have stopped"
We don't hear phrases like "I used to read and write English, but since I moved to management I have stopped"
It seems sad to note that this "move to management" is now also becoming the "move to senior engineering". This indicates to me some problem with job title inflation - like there are not enough manager slots so the management layer is moving down a rung to senior engineer.
Edit: of course Linus Torvalds wrote more emails than code. Which tends to indicate something.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate that this has become the norm. Sometimes, even most of the time, tight clean code and proper data structures and clean smart queries are vital for both cost and performance reasons. That smart(experienced) people think up how to approach a problem and throw it over the wall to the juniors makes me sad, even if it has become somewhat commonplace. I was actually offered a position doing exactly that for a rather…
Thank you. Agreed completely I see software as a form of literacy, and it both amuses and saddens me to hear things like "I used to write code, but since I moved to management I have stopped" We don't hear phrases like "I used to read and write English, but since I moved to management I have stopped" It seems sad to note that this "move to management" is now also becoming the "move to senior engineering". This indica…
Regardless, whoever brings up what GP does is frequently bombarded with the old "communication important" or "soft skills matter" spiel in an attempt to validate the explosion of communicational requirements.
> Good enough is good enough. I’ve only been in my first role for about two months and this one hit the hardest for me personally. I imagine it has a direct correlation with impostor syndrome, but I spend a lot of time writing things over and over again because in the back of my mind I’m thinking “is this the correct approach? Will they think I’m failing if it’s not how they’d do it?” I consider myself lucky that I’m…
I also had the problem of not wanting to ask questions and look stupid, and my manager told me to ask the questions I need to get the task done. Very simple and effective. Also, instead of re-writing things in solitary many times over it would be a lot more effective to write something pretty good (In your eyes) and then ask for feedback on it. That way you can either validate that you're doing a good job, or start t…
my concern with junior engineers is when they ask no questions (they have weird hang ups or they’re completely off the rails) or ask the same questions over and over (didnt admit they didn’t understand the first answer, or they’re not writing things down).
any number of distinct questions is generally fine.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate that this has become the norm. Sometimes, even most of the time, tight clean code and proper data structures and clean smart queries are vital for both cost and performance reasons. That smart(experienced) people think up how to approach a problem and throw it over the wall to the juniors makes me sad, even if it has become somewhat commonplace. I was actually offered a position doing exactly that for a rather…
Thank you. Agreed completely I see software as a form of literacy, and it both amuses and saddens me to hear things like "I used to write code, but since I moved to management I have stopped" We don't hear phrases like "I used to read and write English, but since I moved to management I have stopped" It seems sad to note that this "move to management" is now also becoming the "move to senior engineering". This indica…
In my career, my most rewarding, fun, but also frustrating times are being handed problems I don't know how to solve, even moreso when it seems nobody had tried to solve it before.
Where would we be if people like Bellard just wrote general ideas, but never any code? Without ffmpeg and qemu, probably.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I hate that this has become the norm. Sometimes, even most of the time, tight clean code and proper data structures and clean smart queries are vital for both cost and performance reasons. That smart(experienced) people think up how to approach a problem and throw it over the wall to the juniors makes me sad, even if it has become somewhat commonplace. I was actually offered a position doing exactly that for a rather…
Thank you. Agreed completely I see software as a form of literacy, and it both amuses and saddens me to hear things like "I used to write code, but since I moved to management I have stopped" We don't hear phrases like "I used to read and write English, but since I moved to management I have stopped" It seems sad to note that this "move to management" is now also becoming the "move to senior engineering". This indica…